


Six Scenes in Time

by stitchy



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: A little bit of comics influence in there, Ben POV, Canon Compliant, Gen, Post-Season/Series 01, Power Swap, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 13:36:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18550855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stitchy/pseuds/stitchy
Summary: Clenching his fists, Five tries to blink away but just... doesn’t.Vanya does. She pops out by the fridge, already pulling on the handle to fetch Diego a drink. “Woah,” she says.Suddenly it strikes Ben. “We swapped powers in the last jump.”





	Six Scenes in Time

Ben doesn’t just haunt his brother, and only his brother. Thirteen years of non-stop Klaus isn’t even Klaus’s idea of a good time. Yeah, sometimes Ben feels like he needs a vacation but honestly- the feeling is probably mutual. Klaus would never _really_ try to banish Ben, but there’s only so many times you can loiter outside a guy’s bathroom door before expecting him to tell you to fuck off.

So he visits elsewhere. _Anywhere_. Zoos, movies, hotels that were hosting dollhouse miniaturist conventions. Libraries, where there are plenty of shoulders to peer over. Parks with dogs. Every so often he’ll drift to Vanya’s tiny apartment, where she practices her music and watches the nature channel with her neighbor’s cat. Or he’ll go home and keep Mom company as she dusts the parlor and flips the mattresses that her children haven’t slept on in over a decade. Even following Diego as he skulks around crime scenes was a nice change of pace, now and again. Occasionally he’ll chill with Allison, though she’s often too surrounded by the living to feel like he’s spending quality one-on-one time with her. He never hangs out with Luther, though. It’s not that he blames him for his death- Klaus sorta did, back when it happened, but honestly? Ben can’t quite remember. It’s really just that the moon makes things difficult. In his ghostly form he can roam as far as he like (which admittedly isn’t all that far) and through whatever he liked (walls are so 2006) but he can’t exactly launch his spirit into space. Anyway, it always gets lonely without someone to laugh at his jokes and he gave up on looking for Five’s ghost years ago, so he always came back to Klaus eventually. Unreliable as his brother might otherwise be, he could count on him for an acknowledging smirk. Those few hours where Klaus had left the timestream were unnerving, but how likely was it that that would come up a second time?

 

-2019-

They’re all in a circle on the stage of the Icarus Theatre. He’s got one hand on Klaus’s shoulder. Actually _on_ his shoulder. It’s not as impressive as the spooky little combo they just pulled off moments ago, but it’s the most normal, most sustained feeling he’s felt since dying. Luther has Vanya, and everyone holds tight to whatever piece of each other they can manage. Glances shoot back and forth between them as the vortex rushes around them like a whirlpool, washing away the years. For a moment, he swears he locks eyes with a surprised Five.

 

-1957-

The stage is bathed in flowery pink light and bare, save for the painted backdrop that flutters in the vortex as the siblings heap onto the floorboards. They’re a jumble of knee socks and polished black shoes, now. The rentals from the Super Star Lanes are gone. So is Allison’s wound, apparently.

“You're poking my spleen!” yelps her squeaky young voice.

Diego jumps off her and frantically checks his uniform for knives. While doing so, he steps right through Ben’s chest. Welp. That’s disappointing. They may be cute little tweens again, but he’s still a ghost.

“When is it?” Five scrambles to his feet and tries to get his bearings, but the heavy velvet curtain is drawn and there’s not much to go off of at first glance.

The rest of them get to their feet warily and Ben pops his head through the curtain to take a look into the house. The pit orchestra tunes up while sophisticated looking people are filing into the seats, unaware that just moments ago they’d been confettied with gore and gunfire. The men’s suits seem as standard as any, but the women all have glossy hair and bell shaped skirts like Mom’s.

Next to him, Allison peeks through the part in the curtain (the boring, mortal way). “It’s the Fifties!” she hisses.

Everyone whips around to look at Five, questioningly. Is this what he intended?

“We have to keep moving, right?” Luther asks. Vanya stirs in his arms as the violin cuts above the din.

Five tries to catch his breath, hands on his knees. “The Commission is headquartered out of ‘55. Too dangerous.”

Klaus flails to grab Ben and Luther’s elbows so they can circle up again. “Can you jump us, or what?”

Five shakes his head. “Need a minute.”

“Fine, but let’s get out of here,” says Diego, eyeing one of the wings of the stage where a door has just swung open to the dressing room.

They push their way past a corps of bewildered ballet dancers on the way to the stage door and spill out into the alley.

-2015-

“This is a little up close and personal,” grunts Klaus. He’s sandwiched between Luther who is full grown (and then some) again and still carrying their also adult sister, Ben, and a chrome wall riddled with cupboards and knobs.

Somehow, it’s not a room Ben recognizes, though there are devices and packaging emblazoned with the Hargreeves Enterprises emblem everywhere.

“Are we where I think we are?” Allison asks, eyes wide and starry. Five ducks under her arm to look out a small, nearby window for himself and the others crowd in behind.

He’s long past being uncomfortable with occupying the same geographical space as people, but Ben steps through the wall to give them some space all the same and-

 _Space_.

That’s _exactly_ what they’ve got here, he realizes, stepping onto the chalky surface of the moon.  Behind him is the outpost Luther had been confined to the last few years. Ahead, the Earth hangs in inky blackness.

“I’M THE FIRST GHOST ON THE MOOOOON,” he shouts, hands in the not-air.

Thrilled, Ben pops back into the little building and comes face to face with Luther, who must not see him, or else their Number One would never have openly displayed such heartbreak to the team. He looks miserable to be back here.

Five scratches his chin thoughtfully. “I have to admit, the Commission would never think to look for us here. Not their jurisdiction.”

“Claire will be so jealous,” Allison laughs. She bounces in place to test the low gravity.

“Obviously we can’t stay here,” Luther blusters. “The other me will be back. There’s not enough food. Hardly any water.”

“No ghosts though!” Klaus says, appraisingly. He curtseys to Ben, as if to say _Present company excluded._ “Clean lines, great view. What’s the rent like?”

“Oh hell no,” says Diego. “I am not living with two Luthers and no plumbing.”

“Second thought,” Klaus raises his GOODBYE hand, nose wrinkled. “I’m not living with Diego without plumbing.”

-2002-

Police sirens blink red and blue. The inaugural class of The Umbrella Academy is lined up on the steps of Capital West Bank, posing for the cameras. But, they’re also among the crowd gathered in the parking lot. Ben has seen some strange things (once you've seen one monument go berserk, you've seen 'em all), but watching his bloodsoaked child shelf squirm in the spotlight was up towards the top of the list. Five had warned there was a risk of recursive appearances or something or other if they kept jumping, but as long as they keep out of their own way, it's better than the moon- or god forbid, the 1810’s. What exactly he has against Napoleon he won’t say.

This moment in history could give them plenty of time to work on un-fucking the apocalypse, if... Ben looks around at his siblings- they didn’t all look eight years old. It will be next to impossible to be taken seriously like this. At least they’ve landed on their feet this time, but bystanders are starting to notice that an abnormally buff little boy is hauling around his unconscious sister. And where _is_ Five?

“Is your daughter okay?” a woman in a raincoat asks a nearby old man with a white moustache.

“Sh-she’s fine.” Diego steps in front of Luther and Vanya as though all 3’8” of his little body could hide them from sight.

Baby Allison lifts an eyebrow at the old man. “Uhh, he's not with us.” The effect is somewhat ruined by the fact she’s holding his hand. She startles when she realizes this.

“That’s Five!” Ben exclaims.

Holding the man’s other hand is a mop topped Klaus, who looks up in wonder. “Really?” He cackles gleefully then latches around grown-up Five’s middle. “Oh goody, I have like, ten more ideas for Father Son scams.”

“They’ve had too much sugar,” Five says grimly.

“They’re adorable!” the raincoat woman adds.

Allison tugs on Five’s sleeve again, playing the part as perfectly as ever. “Daaaad, can we go home already? I’m booored.”

-2018-

It’s after hours at Griddy’s, so they help themselves to the kitchen and feast on day-old muffins. Vanya comes around this time, huddled over a tar black cup of coffee. She hasn’t said a word. They swipe an abandoned newspaper from the counter and discover it’s their 29th birthday. Only six months til the Apocalypse. There’s some disagreement if that’s enough wiggle room. Luther being Luther goes around the booth taking a vote.

“Can we please decide when we’re landing? Doing the mambo through time is giving me a stomachache.” Diego pulls his knees close and grimaces.

“So that’s a...?”

“Vote to stay.”

Allison nods. “If we’re gonna stop somewhere- or when, I guess I’d prefer a time when I can call my kid.”

“Two for stay. Klaus?”

“Whatever,” Klaus sighs. “You’ll just decide to do what you want anyway. Now if you’ll excuse me, I haven’t peed in sixty years.” He slips down from his seat on the back of the booth to hit the restroom.

Diego calls behind him. “Be quick!”

“You can’t vote not to vote just cause you’re mad they wouldn’t let you stay on the moon!” Ben sighs.

Five scowls. “We’re cutting it too close. If Vanya, _other Vanya_ , is the lynchpin of the apocalypse it’ll take more than a few months to turn around her life, her entire sense of self worth, and train her powers.”

Slumping a little, Vanya finally speaks. “Five’s right. It took you guys years to get control of your powers.”

Luther pats her shoulder gently. “Two for, two against, one undecided. What about you?” Luther looks right at him. “Ben?”

“Klaus went to the bathroom without saying what Ben thought,” Allison automatically reminds him.

But Luther’s still waiting on Ben, focused on him like he can actually see him. Ben squints back. “Luther?”

“You get a vote too, man.”

Probably a lucky guess, him looking in the right direction. That’s nice, Ben thinks. It’s nice that they’re trying to include him, now that they believe he’s there. Even if he’s kind of hypothetical from their point of view. “Bearing in mind I’m dead no matter what, but-“

“Uhm-“

"Who are you talking-"

Swiveling in his chair to look where Luther is looking, Five shushes everyone. “We can’t see Ben, Luther.”

Finally pulling his eyes away, Luther goes white as a sheet and gulps. “Every time we jump has been kind of strange, I just assumed this time he was... here.”

At that moment Klaus returned to the booth, cracking his back with his arms stretched over his head. “Who’s here?”

“Ben!” Luther is getting agitated.

“No he’s not. Can’t see him,” Klaus says definitively. He’s standing a yard away from Ben. That's rude.

Diego rolls his eyes. “Oh great, he was getting high in the bathroom while I’m here dying for my turn.” He lurches to get out of his seat but winces and stops short. “Aghh!”

“Was not!” Klaus huffs. “Ben just took off. He does that sometimes.”

"C’mon Klaus, I’m right here.”

Klaus looks around contemplatively (but not at Ben) and scratches his beard. “It’s pretty quiet on the ghost front here, actually.”

Luther jumps to his feet and points. “He’s right here!”

“He can’t see me,” Ben realizes. Something is very wrong. Even when Klaus is using, they can still see each other. His heart drops.

Diego hunches over in his seat. “Anybody got, like, a six pack of Tums? Glass of milk? Anything?”

“If it’ll shut you up...” Clenching his fists, Five tries to blink away but just... doesn’t.

Vanya does. She pops out by the soda fridge, already pulling on the handle to fetch Diego a drink. “Woah,” she says.

Suddenly it strikes Ben. “We swapped powers in the last jump.”

Luther is the only one who hears him but he acts immediately. “Allison, rumor me!”

“What? You know I don’t do that anymore.” She crosses her arms and stares at him incredulously but he doesn’t give it up.

“ _Anyone_ , try to do a rumor.”

Ben shrugs. “I heard a rumor you could all see me.” He takes the groups lack of reaction for his answer.

“I heard a rumor I felt fantastic,” Diego grits out. Vanya uncaps a bottle of chocolate milk for him and he downs it in one swig. “No dice.”

Klaus shrugs. “I heard a rumor Five gave up coffee.”

“Don’t even joke,” Five glares at him as he takes a long sip from his mug. “I heard a rumor you stubbed your toe.”

As he goes to hop on the back of the booth again, Klaus slips on the checkered linoleum and nails the leg of Diego’s chair.

“Son of a beesting!”

Five’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead. “That’s a relief. If we’ve swapped powers I’d rather someone with a functioning brain had the reality altering one.”

Predictably goaded by this result, Allison gives it a shot. “Well, I heard a rumor you had hiccups,” she says. When nothing happens she does her best not to deflate. Instead, she folds her straw wrapper furiously.

“All right, what about this,” says Klaus. He takes a butterknife off the table and calls his shot, aiming at the menu sign. “Gonna bullseye the ‘O’ in Plain Doughnut.”

Everyone ducks, expecting the worst, but with a flick of the wrist, he does it.

“Hot diggity!” He snatches a fork off the table and sends it whizzing into the dot of the ‘i’ in Griddy’s. “I dunno why you’re such a grump all the time, Diego, ‘cause this power rocks!”

Diego doesn’t laugh, he just curls in on himself. Something about it nags at Ben.

“I hope I'm not about to give myself a hernia...” Allison pushes herself up from the table and crosses to the fridge, shooting a hesitant glance back at Luther. She wraps her arms around it and easily lifts it off the floor then drops it again with a loud clunk and a puff of dustbunnies.

Five pinches the bridge of his nose. “Oh shit."

Allison freezes in her tracks. "What?" 

"Please tell me Ben still has his monsters.”

 _Oh no no no,_ Ben jumps out of his seat. “Luther...”

Diego shakes his head ‘no’ just once before going limp and falls to the floor. Too late to catch him even if Luther knew how to channel, Ben rushes to their brother’s side. As soon as he realized their powers had gone through the blender he should have recognized what Diego’s stomach ache was, but it's been so long since he was alive to feel the sickening sensation underneath his own skin, he missed it.

“Oh no,” gasps Klaus. “I was just joking, you can be the knife boy!”

“We’ve got to get him to Mom!” Ben cries. She’ll know how to help. He tries to scoop his brother into his arms, but it’s useless until Allison stoops to lift him.

“We have to take him to the house,” orders Luther, jumping out his seat.

Five looks out the window to where a large station wagon has just pulled into a parking space. “I heard a rumor this guy left his keys in the ignition!”

-

They pull up short in front of The Umbrella Academy and Five hits the button to open the back before he even shifts the car into park. On either side of Ben, Klaus and Vanya jump out of the backseat to help Allison with Diego. Before Luther can get out Five grabs his arm.

“We can’t go in. I’m missing and you’re on the moon. If we run into Dad or Pogo...”

“Fine.”

Five turns in his seat to holler through to the back. “You need to minimize interaction!”

“We’ve got this,” says Allison, heaving Diego out of the tailgate. “I’ll take him straight to the infirmary. Vanya, you find Mom. Klaus, can you distract Dad?.”

“No sweat,” says Klaus. “All this time, my true superpower has been being distracting.”

Ben wavers, unsure if he should stay or go. Usually he would follow Klaus, but what’s the use? He’ll just be a panicking ghost in an already panicked situation. He has it on good authority that’s the most annoying kind of ghost to be. The car doors slam shut.

“We should vote again,” says Five, once their siblings have disappeared into the house. “Circumstances have changed.”

Luther side eyes him. “What, you don’t want to leave now?”

“First, I’d have to train Vanya.”

“You’d have six months to do it. Isn’t that enough-”  
  
“No!” Five barks. “Secondly... Now that _I_ have Rumor, we might actually have a shot at averting the apocalypse.”

Ben scoffs. “He’s so humble.”

Luther ignores the slight on Allison and glances in the rear view mirror at Ben before shutting his eyes tight. “Before, when I assumed Ben was alive- I was going to vote that we stick it out and make our stand here. Now... Now I see a woman with broken legs and half a bloody face crawling down the sidewalk. I don’t know.”

That gives all of them pause. If Ben still had the ability to swallow a lump in his throat, he would.

“And what does Ben say?” Five asks.

He tries to imagine following Luther around for the rest of his afterlife, assuming they don’t all end up dead anyway. Does he have much of a life expectancy, with all the ape stuff in him? Better or worse than a depressed junkie? He’d miss Klaus, for sure, but maybe it was only a matter of time until they were both haunting Luther. Maybe it doesn't really matter how he votes. In the end, they either need Vanya to help fix other Vanya, or they need Vanya to get them out of here. It’s down to her.

“I don’t think it makes much difference,” he admits.

Luther tells Five as much, and he smirks. As long as everyone else is unsure, there’s no contest between Luther and Five for who can pull more influence with their sister.

Ben tries in vain to kick the backs of their seats. Should of just stayed on the moon.

-

Allison and Vanya get back to the car first. Vanya’s still kind of shakey, so Allison shuts her door behind her before circling around and coming in to sit on the other side of Ben. The novelty of being squeezed in between his sisters throws him back to a time when they were only ten or so, and they had been shamed for running an eight minute mile while their brothers had done the same in six. He’d felt breathless and nervous then, too.

“How’s Diego?” he asks, same time as Luther.

Allison throws her head back against the seat and scrubs her face with both hands. “He’s in good hands. Mom was confused but she did what Mom does.”

They all knew it well, that uncanny, instant snap she made from cherry pie and charm to clinical and commanding.

Five grips the steering wheel. “What is she going to say if Dad or Pogo ask about him?”

“We told her to say he has flu. They should buy it as long as the Diego from this timeline doesn’t turn up.”

“Someone should go see him,” says Vanya, quietly. She leans her head against the window. “Get him to stay away.”

“Good point.”

Ben wishes he could smile encouragingly at Vanya. She’s been having a rough day (or days? He can't really tell how long it's been since the first time around at the Icarus). He doesn’t know if her somber mood is a symptom of knowing she caused the last apocalypse, or having just realized she’s on the hook for the next one, or both. She could use a little warmth, but it’s not the kind of thing he can have someone translate for him. Least of all Luther, who he can't remember ever smiling.

Finally, Klaus comes romping down the stairs again and knocks on the tailgate. He climbs inside and flops to the floor of the trunk.

Five starts the car again and clears his throat. “So. How was Dad?”

“Mean,” Klaus says, like it bores him rather than wounds him. “He did not wish me a Happy Birthday, by the way. Gotta love that consistency.”

Only Ben snickers.

“Well, you sure kept him out of the way,” admits Allison.

“Don’t sound so surprised! You know how the old man loves to lecture at the slightest provocation.”

“What’d you do?”

“What he least expected.” Klaus lets out a long sigh. “Told him I was sober and finally ready to conjure for him.”

Luther shudders. In the midst of trying to ignore the spirits he can now see, it must revolt him to consider inviting one in. Still, his curiosity gets the better of him. “Who did he want to talk to?”

“Some old lady. Weird name. Long hair.”

“Huh.”

-

Allison’s credit cards are still in date since they’re not too far off from their native place in time, so they make the maximum cash withdrawal, go on a supply spree, then hunker down in a hotel. It’s a bit of a squeeze- just two beds and a pull-out, but it still feels sort of empty to Ben without Diego. Five immediately strips the couch to build a nest in the corner while the others jockey for the first turn in the shower. While the rest of them squabble over who’s likely to ruin more towels, Vanya slips by unnoticed.

Five scribbles plans furiously on the backside of the room service menu while Luther paces back and forth, posing questions, unable to settle down. “What if the other Allison reports us for fraud?”

Bottles clink as their Allison blithely empties the minibar to mix drinks. “She’ll see the charges are in town and just assume Klaus is skimming her again.”

Klaus takes a break from trying to throw M&M’s into (an uncooperative) Luther’s mouth to salute her. “You’re so welcome. If I wasn’t such a little scamp, we could have been flagged by now.”

“It’s not like any of us is liquid,” Ben shrugs. “Spaceboy, a vigilante, a junkie, and two guys who’ve been legally dead for over a decade? Vanya’s probably the only other one of us with a bank account, and robbing her is _so_ not in our best interests.”

He half expects Klaus to joke back that he has several accounts under assumed names but then remembers.

“ _I_ have money,” Luther grumbles as Allison presses a rum and coke into his hands.

“Which I’m sure Dad keeps an eye on,” Five points out. “Besides, I think we can handle a little larceny, as needed.” He holds out a hand without looking up.

Allison gives him another one of the glasses. “Happy Birthday,” she sing-songs.

“Cheers.”

Klaus gasps indignantly. “Forgetting someone?”

“I left one for Vanya.”

“I mean me!”

There’s an awkward silence and as no one seems quite sure what to say. Everyone, Ben most of all, is aware how fragile newly resolved sobriety can be- but if Klaus is only doing it for the sake of controlling his powers, where does that leave things? Would he be happy never getting to talk to Ben again? Or Dave? Can he just leave Luther to cope with the dead, and Diego to suffer at the mercy of his monsters? Can any of them?

They really can’t stay like this.

“Luther,” Ben taps him on the shoulder. “I need you to speak for me. Then I think we should vote again.”

-1908-

It takes four months and a week for Vanya to learn how, but they get out of there. Everything and everyone seems to be back in order, (though Diego can now hold his breath indefinitely, apparently).

The coinciding rise of consumerism and the height of the Spiritualist Movement turn out to be a perfect training ground for Klaus to hone his powers, Vanya can ply her musical trade in any time period, and there’s always plenty of work for a brute like Luther. It’s a time where people don’t look too closely at your papers, so they stick around for awhile, making a little money and few choice investments. It’s not like they have to wait long for them to pay off.

 

-1989-

When better to fix things then when it all began? Five even manages to give them a few months head start. They pool every scrap of information they ever needled out of Pogo or saw over their father’s shoulder. Allison whispers in the right ears, here and there. The boys do some detective work and connect the right dots. Vanya buys an academy of her own with eighty years of interest and creates dozens of scholarship positions for women to pursue whatever career they like, here in the city. With free child care! When the day comes, they simply cover more ground.

Now they know why Dad could only get his hands on seven of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks all! This is my second fic in this fandom, and I suspect there are more on the way... stay tuned.
> 
> Anyway I’m @stitchyarts on tumblr and twitter if you wanna follow over there. I do art and stuff!


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